Abstract:
Contact mechanics examines how deformable bodies interact at their interfaces. Traditionally, Lagrangian frameworks dominate solid mechanics, yet they often demand sophisticated algorithms for contact detection and resolution. Furthermore, they face difficulties when dealing with solids with evolving boundaries. Eyeing towards an hollistic model of a multiphysical system with chemical processes like diffusion and solidification that directly affect the mechanical problem, an Eulerian perspective is almost essential.
In this seminar talk, I will present our recent work on a fully Eulerian finite element model for elastic contact problems. It incorporates a phase-field approach for interface capturing, and the advection of reference coordinates to infer elastic deformation. While decoupling material points from the discretization introduces complexities for modeling solids, having a single reference system greatly reduces the complexity of contact detection. Furthermore, the diffuse interface representation offers immediate access to surface normals.
Short bio:
Flavio obtained his Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Civil Engineering from ETH Zürich and is currently pursuing a PhD in Computational Mechanics in the Computational Mechanics for Building Materials group of Prof. David S. Kammer. His research involves the investigation of fully Eulerian approaches for modeling multiphysical systems, namely corrosion in cementitious materials.
